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From the LGA Chairman

Dear colleagues,

I wrote to you on Friday highlighting some of the sensible steps councils were undertaking to reassure their residents in response to the awful Grenfell Tower fire last week. Again, our Chief Executive, Mark Lloyd, has also written to your Chief Executive. 

Although we still do not yet know for certain what caused the fire or why it spread so quickly, the national media has begun heavily scrutinising council efforts to review high-rise buildings. There have also been accusations that some councils still have not carried out audits of their housing stock or begun undertaking reviews.

We are in contact with the councils named in reports today to offer support and understand whether these reports are inaccurate and need challenging. We know that councils are working hard to reassure residents since the disaster and that most of you will already be taking action. 

We understand DCLG will be writing to your authorities today or early next week detailing some steps you should be taking as a matter of priority. I know you will all be seized of the importance of starting these checks and the other steps I wrote to you about on Friday, if they have not already begun. I am sure I do not need to remind you of the urgency with which the whole of local government needs to act following this disaster.

I hope it will prove helpful to remind you of the steps I outlined on Friday:

1. Establishing which tower blocks councils own or manage (including through a Tenant Management Organisation, Estate Management Board, Arms Length Management Organisation or Registered Social Landlord) that have been refurbished.
2. Ensuring any building control sign-off has taken into account the guidance Fire Safety in purpose-built blocks of flats (for example, paragraphs 72.1-2 on cladding. Some councils are instructing independent specialists to check cladding and the way it was installed). 
3. Establishing if there is an up to date fire risk assessment that has been produced since the refurbishment and who carried it out. 
4. Confirming that where a block is designed on the compartmentalisation principle, no work at any time since its construction has compromised that principle. Some councils are considering reviewing fire compartmentation reports.
5. Reviewing the fire safety advice given to residents in light of the outcomes of the above actions and in line with the guidance.
6. Many councils have been contacting residents to reassure them based on their actions and are issuing advice in conjunction with their local Fire and Rescue Service.

The note DCLG will send out today is based on expert advice, but we know there is a great deal of speculation and concern about wider issues and we are seeking to support effective coordination in case further questions and requests for info emerge.

Please can you share with us therefore any information on what your authority has been doing, copy us into your replies to DCLG’s survey and let us know if you are happy for us to use your work as good practice to share across the sector and to promote to the public through the national media.

I have been in discussion with DCLG’s Secretary of State today about the resource implications of any work identified as a result of the new inspections DCLG have requested and secured assurances that funding will be made available to those councils that need to conduct work. Once more details are available the LGA will be in contact with your authorities. We also aim, as I said on Friday, to meet with the Fire Minister and Housing Minister next week, which will provide us with another opportunity to raise any issues or concerns you have with the government or other agencies.

As always, please do not hesitate to let us know if there is anything we can do to help.